04 Premium: Options vs. Procedure: Find Your Preferred Novel-Editing Process

The episode explores a preferred mental process for approaching novel editing, drawn from an NLP “options vs. procedure” spectrum. 

On one end are procedural thinkers who prefer step-by-step rules and editing from beginning to end; on the other are options-oriented thinkers who prefer open alternatives, exploration, and non-linear “buffet” approaches. 

Most people fall somewhere in the middle and may shift during editing, sharing their own tendency to work procedurally while generating options for deeper story fixes like clarifying character motivation. 

Examples include editing chapters sequentially, reading chapters in reverse order to see the book differently, and writers who draft and edit out of order before arranging the final structure. 

The key takeaway is there’s no single right way. Understanding your preference helps you organize, stay motivated, and edit in harmony with your strengths.

00:00 Preferred Mental Process 

00:48 Procedure vs Options Spectrum 

01:39 Self Check Editing Style 

01:57 Author Example Hybrid Approach 

03:15 Alternative Methods Backwards Read 

03:54 Use Your Filter to Organize 

04:21 Out of Order Editing Example 

05:01 Wrap Up and Farewell

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

This week I wanna talk to you about your preferred mental process, or how you approach the world. Now we generally approach the world. In, some preferred ways and as we edit our novel, it's really helpful to understand this mental process, this preferred mental process, so that we can understand how you want to go about editing. Now we all are filtering reality in our own way, often very unconsciously. And for editing purposes. Today I'm gonna just talk about one mental process, and It's a spectrum. You're going to not necessarily be one or the other. You might be somewhere on one end, somewhere on another end, or somewhere in the middle, and it might move around a little bit. as you go through the editing process. So, and this comes from NLP Neurolinguistic programming, I have a certification practitioner certification in that, and I really love integrating those tools into the creative process. So think of a slider, either horizontally or vertically, and know that on the one end of this slider is procedure. People who like to follow procedure step by step, a set of rules, 1, 2, 3, versus on the other end of the slider options or popcorn style. Think of a buffet. Things aren't in a predefined order. There's a lot of different ways we could proceed. There's a exploration of new ideas that might go off in different directions with no. clear start or finish. Accept whatever you decide. So here's a question to ask yourself as you think about editing your novel. Are you someone who likes to keep open? A lot of options, a lot of alternatives. Could be this, could be that. Or do you prefer to follow an established procedure? Now what, what could this look like? And I admit I'm biased because I'm very procedural. I like to start at the beginning and go to the end. When it comes to, for example, editing my novel, I wanna start at the, at first chapter, second chapter, third chapter. And this is after I've done a read through, but I'm very options oriented when it comes to making certain fixes around the character. For example, I'll start. Diving deeper into my edits and I'll realize, oh, my character, I need to get more clear about their motivation. Therefore, I'm gonna edit a scene that happens maybe a third of the way into the book. I'm gonna really let that show this very important thing. I'm gonna deepen that and then that will affect other parts of the story. So. I will probably start at the beginning of the book because I'm so procedural and institute those options from the beginning to the end. But how so? How I think about the book might be very options oriented, but how I work on the book is very procedural oriented and I've seen a lot of writers Operate that way. I've seen writers who are very options oriented, even how they go about editing their book. I would say a lot of writers are procedural oriented and need to do things from the beginning to the end. And then sometimes I have actually worked backwards in editing my book when I wanted to look at it in a new way. I read it. Literally backwards. And I didn't read the words from the end to the beginning, but I would read the last chapter and then read the previous chapter and then read the previous one before that. And it was a way to look at the book a little differently. But again, I was still in a process. So notice if you really need to set up a process, if you're really motivated by processes or if you really love the options idea, mind mapping, having lots of ideas to pick and choose from, depending on how you're feeling. The reason I'm sharing this with you, this mental process, asking you what is your preferred mental process to show you that there's a lot of ways we process reality, and this is just one of'em. This options procedural filter is just one of them. And I find that knowing that can help you decide how to be organized, what motivates you, and come to terms with how you are. Because there is no one right way. And just one more example around options. I've worked with people who wrote their book completely out of order, and while they put the book into some kind of order, their, they edit all the pieces first, and then they decided where they would, they would go in the grand scheme of things. So even their editing process was very options oriented. There's no one right way, there's just the way that you prefer and the more you understand what your preferences are the more you can work in harmony with your own mind and heart and get your editing done,'cause our goal here is to help you edit your novel in a way that works for you. So we wanna really harness all of your strengths. All right, that is today's episode. Write long and prosper.